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Graphics Driver fix for Back|Track 5r2

Ladies/Gents,

I have come across a non-conventional way to fix some of the GPU issues you might be experiencing with the new Kernel. The specific issue that I was facing was that my resolution was stuck at 1024x600 even though I had a native resolution of 1366x768. As well, my function keys for controlling the brightness did not work either. I am not sure if this affects any GPUs aside from Intel; however I have provided generic instructions for all.

Regarding the files you will need to incorporate this fix, I don't want to host these myself, however if you follow the instructions, grabbing them will be simple enuf.

Balding_parrot, thank you for having some patience with this matter, I know I irked the heck out of ya in IRC that day, but I do believe the payoff was worth it in the end.

I am not the biggest fan of using sources on back|track other than the approved ones via the default /etc/apt/sources.list, so I have tried to isolate and mitigate the dangers of doing so via some of the steps I have taken below. Hopefully this thread takes off and eventually these specific changes are incorporated into a future patch and hosted on the local Back|Track repos.

Boot into your working copy of Back|Track (The one you wish to implement these changes to)

Go ahead and drop foo.tar.gz into ~

Code:

tar xfz foo.tar.gz

A quick pause is needed here to explain the next couple of steps. I chased and chased my tail on the next steps for a good 8 hours last Saturday. When I performed the ppa addition and did an apt-get dist-upgrade it fixed the system, but it also added a lot of junk that I didn't need to my system, as well as the potential for security loopholes, such that I was adding files to the system from people I don't know too much about other than what is on their website. That being said, I have done the hard part for you and narrowed down the exact packages you need to correct the Intel GPU issues.

For users of non-Intel GPUs, the only way to test this fix out is to do this on your installed version of Back|Track as the following steps require installation of .debs and for the changes to be incorporated, they require a reboot, and therefore the liveUSB version of Back|Track will not track those changes; granted, persistence mode might work, it might not. When I performed this hack I was using an installed version of Back|Track as my testbed. If the apt-get dist upgrade option works properly for you and you would like some help narrowing down only the needed packages, shoot me a message or respond on this thread and I will guide you as best as possible. If you would like to try this method, follow the above steps to avoid adding a PPA to your installed system, decompress foo.tar.gz and dpkg -i *.deb a couple times until all packages have been installed without the needed packages flag getting thrown.

Okay, time to fix your Intel issues, here we go.

The upcoming directions will break the files you grabbed into three categories:

GPU .debs

Input .debs

Extra Needed .debs

Steps:

Grab the following files from foo and move them into their own directory, name it gpu

Save the rest of the files until the final reboot, as my system might be a tad bit different from yours. Regarding all this, I have listed what works for me; however if you view the contents of foo after the movement of the above listed files, you will find that you have left behind files such as

Code:

intel-gpu-tools_1.0.2+git20110124+afaf5ef-0ubuntu1~lucid_amd64.deb

Since it was the intel-gpu-tools .deb, it is probably needed, however my system has not thrown any errors at me, so I decided against installing it.

Once you have successfully installed all the .debs listed in the gpu, input and extraz go ahead and reboot your system. Prior to the system bootloading, go ahead and modify your grub line where it says something like: ro splash etc... and insert i915.modeset=1 after ro and before splash. Here is an example of that specific line for my grub.cfg:

Code:

ro text i915.modeset=1

If you notice above I mentioned two different ways of loading the i915.modeset=1 flag. I contradicted myself specifically to make this point. On an installed system, it didn't seem to matter where the i915.modeset=1 flag is placed. When I was experimenting with LiveUSB options via unetbootin it did matter; for the unetbootin option I modified the bootloading sequence to say:

Code:

ro i915.modeset=1 text

I am not sure as to why unetbootin has to be all difficult and such, but just know that if you choose to modify your ISOs with the above mentioned fixes and you wish to see those changes via a method such as unetbootin, make sure you load i915.modeset=1 after ro and before anything else.

If you had NO idea that you could modify an iso, or just weren't quite sure how to do it; I have just the tool for you over at Back|Track ISO mod'ing

Cheers!

V/r,
Snafu
Pffbt..[quote]I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me... Or feels threatened by me.. Or thinks I'm a smart ass.. [/quote]

Re: Graphics Driver fix for Back|Track 5r2

I m a noob round here ( bt5 & ubuntu or linux) but have u been able to use the nvidia settings after this fix?or its a different story here?
I ve been googling like hell last (many) days with no essential solution for optimus gpu (nvidia & intel).
Only thing i ve managed is to use my card in order to install cuda via bumblebee but no nvidia-settings no overlocking not even with nvclock!
I have a Geforce 520mx on a i5 asus with intel hd graphics 3000.BT5 r2 is on dual boot with win7.thnx!

Re: Graphics Driver fix for Back|Track 5r2

I have the solution for ya but it is not for GUI purposes...Check it out here

V/r,
Snafu
Pffbt..[quote]I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me... Or feels threatened by me.. Or thinks I'm a smart ass.. [/quote]

Re: Graphics Driver fix for Back|Track 5r2

It's worth noting too, that this takes a pretty healthy USB drive. I tried it with a freshly formatted 8gb SanDisk (same one I initially installed BT5r2 from) and got an out of space error. Tried again and same effect.

Snafu777, if I were to install BT5r2 onto another computer; could I simply repeat these steps from the other computer instead of doing it all from the flash drive, then just push "foo" over my network onto the hard drive of my working BT5r2 machine?

I don't mind getting a larger usb stick if necessary, however I kinda live in the boonies, so buying online or WalMart are really my only options for electronics. Since WalMart is pretty hit or miss on drives that actually work for booting an OS, I typically buy SanDisk Cruzers from Amazon.

*edit* And I guess so, did a clean install on my backup laptop, then proceeded to follow your instructions, worked great.

-also, it seems that "apt-get autoremove" will break this. All I had to do was repeat the

dpkg -i gpu/*.deb; dpkg -i input/*.deb; dpkg -i extraz/*.deb

step from the command prompt. So I wouldn't recommend deleting your install files until you're out of the habit of using that command. Other than that, I'm thrilled, it's working great.

Last edited by Tentatio; 03-20-2012 at 05:18 PM.
Reason: Answered my own question

Re: Graphics Driver fix for Back|Track 5r2

Like Tentatio's scenario, I also have only 8gb thumb drives, and also live in the middle of no where. I was trying to think of some mid battle strategy, and was wondering. Would it be possible to format a DVD-R to mimic a usb thumb drive and use that apply this fix? oh, and I'm sure I speak for all of us when I say " thank you for sharing this graphics fix"

Re: Graphics Driver fix for Back|Track 5r2

if I were to install BT5r2 onto another computer; could I simply repeat these steps from the other computer instead of doing it all from the flash drive, then just push "foo" over my network onto the hard drive of my working BT5r2 machine?

*edit* And I guess so, did a clean install on my backup laptop, then proceeded to follow your instructions, worked great.

I was curious, did you have to move the file over your network, or were you able to save to a flash drive and import the file from that?

Re: Graphics Driver fix for Back|Track 5r2

Originally Posted by bishop379

I was curious, did you have to move the file over your network, or were you able to save to a flash drive and import the file from that?

Works well either way, once you've zipped to foo it's pretty compact, it's just the update that seems to use all the space. foo.tar.gz wound up coming in just shy of 150mb, so once you have executed all of snafu's commands up to/including the creation of foo.tar.gz the space issues go away.

Re: Graphics Driver fix for Back|Track 5r2

I have: Acer Timeline-X 4830TG-6808
Intigrated Intel with NVIDIA Geforce GT 540m gpu and Optimus energy save
Intel Core i5
Dual boot - Windows 7 / Backtrack 5 r2
I followed the directions exactly as described and finally got the results I was looking for. Graphics ran smooth after this. I didn't have to tweek anything. Thank you for solving this for us Noobs..! I tried Bumblebee and a host of other crap with no luck. My goal was to get Compiz working on this new Notebook. Well it finally works...!

One question.. ..do you know if the installment of NVIDIA drivers and Cuda from your other thread http://www.backtrack-linux.org/forum...ad.php?t=48331 interfere with this installment? Probably a dumb question and maybe I should just do it, but it doesn't hurt to ask first. I'd like to avoid having to completely re-install my OS all-over again.

Re: nightvision1

nightvision1,

My solutions do work together. However, something i do need to follow up with is that on my box (Alienware M11xR3) this solution is no longer needed, just some loading of proper modules prior to starting the GUI environment. When I get home tonight, I will make a post addressing this.....

V/r,
Snafu
Pffbt..[quote]I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me... Or feels threatened by me.. Or thinks I'm a smart ass.. [/quote]